The Safest Place
by Chris Kenworthy
Summary: Maria and her friends start new lives at the old Queen's secret hideout on a faraway planet - but will they have any future in an alien city where their human sides that must be kept secret at all costs? Sequel to 'Please Stand Up' and 'Cabin Fever'
1. Chapter 1

"Okay, so just what's the plan?" I said, looking around the alien city about us. "You mentioned something about getting us moved into temporary accommodations, Miz - Alinda?" As I spoke, I hefted up the heavy bag that contained nearly all of my personal effects from the ship in which we had travelled from Earth to the planet Vrelayan.

"Yes, Maria," Alinda said, smiling tenderly in a way that reminded me very much of Grandma DeLuca. That was an odd sort of association to have, I have to admit, but it made me feel more at home. If anybody's, Alinda was Max and Isabel's family, and Lonnie's, but even if Vilandra and Zan had been her children, I knew that the Evanses didn't feel comfortable with a direct parental relationship. "The rooms that you've requested are all ready now, if you want to settle in somewhere relatively permanent."

"That sounds good to me," Michael put in. "Where did we all settle? I mean, I think I know the arrangements that I'm a part of, but not everybody's been talking, and I know that some plans have changed, so maybe it'd be good to have everything out in the open."

"Very well, I'm clear on everything, so I can give you the rundown," Alinda said. She had been quite happy to make arrangements on behalf of us kids from Roswell, and nobody had minded letting her get involved that way. "Max and Liz, to start with them for no particular reason, have picked a charming little apartment in the Gorvan complex - a little karkerrin, you could say."

"If we could pronounce it," Liz said, making a face. "Sorry, Alinda - that must not have been one of the Antarian words we've learned in our intensive crash course."

"And coming across things like that just sort of remind us that we're speaking a - a new language," I added. I've never been that good with languages, so it was kind of surprising that I'd gotten to a basic fluency with Antarian over less than two months of immersion.

"Oh, well, let's see - it just means a well furnished cozy place suitable for a young and intensely bonded couple."

"Like a honeymoon suite?" Ava put in.

"Hmm, sounds like not quite," Liz answered. "That's more a special place to stay on the wedding night, or shortly after, not a permanent home. 'Love nest' might fit, but it doesn't really matter. I look forward to seeing our karkerrin, by whatever other name."

"Good," Alinda said. "And you and some of your friends didn't want to be separated too far, as I understood it - Michael, Maria, Isabel, and Alex will be just down the corridor. As they weren't certain about the commitment of living with their beloveds, off the ship, and yet appreciated some of the convenience..."

"I'm rooming with Alex, and the girls are together, just next door," Michael finished. "So two people can switch, as appropriate, whenever we want a romantic night in by ourselves."

"Although Maria and I will have to flip some sort of randomizer to decide who has to spend time in the boys' apartment," Isabel teased.

"Right," Alinda said with a private smile of her own. "Lonnie wanted a bit of space from the rest of you, so she'll be in a single room down the stairs in the same complex, and around a corner or two."

"Okay, so that leaves..." Alex took only a moment to work it out. "Rath, Ava - and Kyle. What about you guys?"

"Well, wherever we bunk down tonight, it won't be permanent I think," Rath said, reaching out a hand for Alex to slap in friendly fashion. "Ava and I are shipping out with the military in a few days. There's a war going on out there, and needless to say, I think that the Liaret faction is fighting the good fight. We just had to volunteer."

"Both of you?" Liz exclaimed, turning to Ava. "You're leaving so soon?"

"Umm, yeah," Ava agreed, turning a slightly awkward smile to Liz. "I meant to mention it before this, but..." At this point, Liz cut Ava off with a big, tight hug. "I - I'll make sure to ask for leave to attend your wedding, girl," Ava said once she had some breath to talk again.

"You'd better, sister dear," Liz whispered back tenderly.

"And I think we might have enough influence to arrange that leave," Vorjal said dryly, which got everybody chuckling. Alinda, her grandson Prince Vorjal, Alinda's proxy girl Raydeleen, and Vorjal's seneschal Turik, were probably the highest authorities over the Liaret armed forces - and all four of them were here to welcome a bunch of kids from Roswell (or New York) to their Sanctuary.

"And, well, I'm going to be staying with Miz Alinda for the foreseeable future," Kyle said, derailing whatever train the conversation had been going down and putting the spotlight onto himself.

Several young faces turned toward Kyle. Almost all of them had been extended the invitation to live at Alinda's own residence in the heart of Sanctuary, but it seemed surprising at first that Kyle, of all of them, would take that choice instead of a place that would be more his own home. Until Maria realized - "Oh, right. Tess and the baby have been staying with her too, right?"

Kyle shrugged nervously, and looked over at Tess, who was walking behind most of the group, carrying little Joshua - her son with Max - cradled against her shoulder. There was unexpected affection in the stare that she shot back at him. "Well - yeah. Now that we're back here and all, I'm sorta glad that I didn't make other arrangements. We need to sort ourselves out, one way or another."

"Yeah, I think that's a good idea," Liz agreed, and then jumped slightly as something occurred to her. "How far are you from the - the Gorvan complex? I mean, I know that Max will want to spend a lot of time with Joshua - and I guess I will too, so that means a lot of going back and forth one way or another."

"It's about a block," Rayde filled in helpfully. "The way the buildings in this area are all connected, you can even make the trip without stepping outside onto the sidewalk, if you please. That route would involve taking a shortcut through a shopping arcade balcony, and crossing above the motorway on a pedestrian bridge."

"What about the future?" Vorjal asked us. "I realize that you might not have had any plans but reaching what safety we can offer you here, but..."

"I think four of us, at least, are taking classes soon," Max told him. "Myself, Liz, Isabel, and Alex."

"Yes - you'll be starting in four or five days," Alinda said. "I have the official message saying exactly when and where - back at home. I'll send it along to your rooms."

"Is that completely safe?" Michael asked. "I mean - I'd just hate to see something happen to us because some snitch in one of their classes..."

"The college, Lasare School, is largely a front for Liaretian training," Alinda put in. "Our background screening is quite good, so I don't really expect that you'll run across a 'snitch.' However, it might be well if you didn't go into all the details of your background..."

"Yeah, it'd probably be confusing, if nothing else," Max said. "So, once again, we blend in, try to avoid being noticed as too different - though this time, it'll be our human sides we're trying to hide somewhat, not the alien part." He sighed. "Let's see - Rath and Ava have already told us what they'll be up to - Michael? Maria? Lonnie?"

"Kyle, too, unless he thinks that sorting out his relationship with Tess is a full time gig," Alex joked. Kyle shook his head and sighed, but didn't bother rising to the bait this time.

"I don't have any particular plans - just learning as much about Vrelayan and the Antarian sphere of settlement as I can, and trying to figure out how I can fit into it," Michael said. "Maria mentioned something about trying out a career as a pop star."

"Hey now, that was just one day's idle fancy," I protested, but probably I couldn't really hide from my friends that I was still intrigued by the idea - and pleased that Michael had remembered about it.

"Well, I hope that you have a chance to try out that dream, Maria," Alinda told me. "Let me know if I can help, though I don't think I have any contacts in the music industry - well, except for one Symphony conductor." Turik seemed to be much less pleased about the idea - maybe as a security concern, it might fall under his responsibility.

"What about yourself, Lonn?" Rath asked.

"No big plans, I have to admit." Lonnie let out a sigh. "For all that I wanted to leave Earth - well, I guess I expected that I'd go back to the Royal Court on Antar, a princess once again. And this time, I - well, I guess none of us really had anything in mind other than escaping Earth alive when Kivar sent in the army after our hides."

"You'll work it out," Isabel told her, and Lonnie just shrugged.

"Well, that's it up ahead," Rayde said, pointing to a large building up the street and diagonally across an intersection in the city's ground-car lanes. "The Gorvan complex."

"And where's Alinda's crib?" Ava asked, smiling.

"Still out of sight, down the cross-street in that direction," Alinda said, pointing to the left.

"So I guess we split up there, huh?" Kyle said.

"Yes - but not for long," Liz suggested. "How about we all meet for dinner or something after, umm, settling in?"

"Sounds good," Michael agreed.

"I'll play hostess for that meal," Alinda decided. "Vorjal, I know that you and your able assistants will have to be leaving for other business soon - were you planning to leave one of your people at Gorvan?"

"Yes, for the first few days," Vorjal agreed with a nod. "You don't need guards in there - the perimeter and entry points are already secured, but since you're new around here, I thought a guide and gofer might be useful."

"Yes," Max agreed, and then looked around the way that they'd come. "Will - will we get to see Christin or the other crew of the ship anytime soon? I guess I've gotten so used to them helping out..."

"I'll invite Christin to the dinner," Alinda suggested. "I believe that the rest of the ship's company will be too busy with preparations for their next mission to attend."

"Oh." Max sighed, and the group continued down the sidewalk. "Just how do we get across the streets, if we're not using overhead bridges? Are there safe crosswalks and indicator lights, that kind of thing?"

Alinda laughed softly, and Rayde started to explain the basics of Landorin city traffic law.

#

"It's a great apartment," Isabel's voice came through an open doorway. "No offence, but I'm glad that we don't have to actually sleep in the same room. This way is going to be much easier to adjust to."

"Yeah, I know what you mean," I agreed, hefting her ship-fabricated suitcase up onto the bed and then going out of the room again. "Well, I get the impression that rents aren't too high in Landorin city, and the Liaret family treasury is still doing alright."

"Ooh, right." Isabel's head popped out of her own bedroom. "I guess I didn't really think of it that way. We'll be taking charity all over the place, really - charity and favours, like the ship, which was courtesy of Larek."

"I guess, if you want to think of it that way," I admitted with a sigh. "But is there really any shame in taking charity from generous people, when you truly need it? We're refugees, forced to flee our home planet for our lives."

Isabel sighed a bit to herself. "I wonder how much tuition at the college is."

"Maybe not that much, if our hosts are really the ones running the school," I countered.

Isabel walked out into the lounge and looked around. "It's not _that_ spacious an apartment, but I like it. Maybe - umm, eight hundred square feet, do you think?"

"I - I wouldn't have the faintest idea, without something to actually measure each room with," I admitted. It was a bit cozy, but not too bad - a bedroom for each with a bed that was at least double-sized, dressers drawers and small closets. Each bedroom opened up onto the lounge, dominated by the seating that could fit five people, and be re-arranged so that they could either talk to each other or watch the video screen. A computer access terminal was tucked into the corner. The lounge was definitely the central hub of their apartment - as well as connecting to the two bedrooms, it had one door for the hallway outside, and offshoots to a kitchen nook and water closet.

"I wonder how much trouble they had to order our beds in," Isabel continued idly.

"Hmm? Why should they be custom orders?" I asked, surprised.

"Oh - something that Michael and I went through when we went to Stellynfrus with Tess in the first place. Your usual Antarian-made bed is something that a lot of other species, including humans, couldn't lie down on comfortably. They use special back supports built in and I don't know what all else." I was getting concerned by now. "But I tried lying down on the bed in my room first thing, and it's great. Alinda must have already thought of that."

"She's probably already been through it with Tess," I pointed out. "Wait a minute, though, the beds on the ship..."

"Were probably designed with unexpected passengers in mind," Isabel pointed out. "Since it's an official government courier ship."

"Okay." I looked around. "Come to think of it, there's a lot about this place that seems - more familiar and comfortable than I was expecting. I wonder if it was especially decorated and furnished to be earth-like."

"I suppose that's possible," Isabel agreed. "So, umm... anything else we should settle right off? In terms of starting a roommate relationship. I know that we're not really sharing rooms, but... no other word seems to fit."

"Hmm." I focused on the word issue first off. "Might as well stick with it. I remember Sean using it back when he was sharing an apartment with two other guys." Mentioning family back home brought a little bittersweet smile to my face, even if it was Cousin Sean, who wasn't exactly my most favourite family member. "We **are** sharing some rooms, just not the bedrooms, actually. And in this situation..." I dropped into one of the chairs in the lounge. "We've settled who's in which room, and that seems like the only big thing that needed to be covered straight off. Maybe it would be different if we were back home, and not in such an unfamiliar situation already - not that we'd be that likely to move in together back home."

"Ehh, you never know," Isabel said. "But okay, sounds good - I guess we just have to be flexible and considerate with each other whenever an issue does come up. We could take turns being right, or something - or take turns getting things our own way, maybe I should put it that way."

I considered that. It was superficially a simple system, but might lead to some unusual back-and-forth and 'gaming' if we let it, because once the alternation started they'd each know who was next in turn to 'win' an argument. If I was next to get a disagreement resolved in my favour, for instance, I'd tend to want to make it count for something big, while Isabel might be tempted to bring up a bunch of little things as possible conflicts... "Nah, no need for anything so formal unless we can't work it out on a more relaxed basis," I decided.

"Fine by me. Want to take a crack at the alien TV?"

So I picked up the little remote control interface. Both of us were used to most of the conventions of Antarian video from watching weeks worth of it on the ship during our long voyage.

"Ooh, Autumn's Vale!" Isabel exclaimed, and I stopped on that program - a sort of action angst melodrama that we'd watched about a season of together. "I think we've got some stuff in between where we left off and here to catch up on - who's the tall guy with the dark brown skin?"

"Well, obviously I don't know," I replied, trying to set aside obvious snappishness for just a hint of sarcasm. "Let's watch together, a bit more quietly, and try to figure it out, 'kay?"

Isabel sighed, rolled her eyes a bit, and took the hint.

#

Autumn's vale was just getting to the cliff-hanger ending, with the Amron triplets and Gorvan Shelthor venturing up to explore the Mystified Cave when somebody pounded at the door. "Come on, it's time to go over to Alinda's!"

"Already? It's only..." I checked her watch, and it read 1310. I was about to call that back when I remembered that the watch was still set to 'Ship's time', (thanks to some reprogramming from the ship's crew.) It had been later on Landorin when we landed, hadn't it? And then it occurred to me to try to identify who had called us. Not Michael's voice... Alex? Or Max?

"It's dinner time, well, early dinner, by local clock." Yeah, that would be Alex. "And she's a fairly old lady, maybe she likes to get to bed early. Could one of you please open the door so we don't have to keep yelling back and forth?"

I looked over at Isabel, who was still staring at the action on the screen and didn't show any signs of even having recognized her boyfriend. With just a bit of pique, I picked up the remote egg to turn the video off and then rushed across the room to let Alex inside. The timing worked fairly well - just as Isabel had gotten over shock and was charging out of her chair in building fury, she caught sight of Alex. Either he put Isabel in a much better mood than Autumn's Vale had, or she was just concealing her anger until she was alone with me once again.

"Oh, hi sweetie, what's up?"

Alex shot me a look, and I just shrugged. "Umm - our local guide has mentioned that this would probably be a good time to get ready for dinner at Alinda's."

Isabel's eyes narrowed critically at the reference to 'getting ready'. "We're expected to dress up fancy?"

"I dunno, I kind of get that impression, but when I asked straight out, I just got 'whatever your honour chooses.'" Alex scoffed at the notion that anyone should use such a term of respect on him.

"That sort of fits with - well, with a culture of etiquette," I said, "especially if the people in service positions around Alinda and Vorjal see us as being of a similar social rank."

"Okay, well then, we definitely want to show respect for Alinda," Isabel decided with the kind of un-self-conscious authority that only the Christmas Nazi could manage; a sort of a matter-of-fact take-chargedness that was hard to complain about or even notice that much. "Alex, what about that dark blue outfit we had made after leaving Kaalto?"

"The one that was nearly as uncomfortable as a funeral suit and - well, and several times goofier-looking?" Alex shot back, smiling.

"That's just an Earth reaction," Isabel told him. "Christin told me that by Antarian sector fashions..."

"No, come on, Alinda would not want me to dress up in an outfit like that for dinner with her," Alex insisted.

"In clothes that you're not familiar with the look of, so you think that they're silly?"

"In clothes that I'm not comfortable in yet, either physically or mentally," Alex told her. "You can go as native as you like, my princess, but I'll show her my esteem in my own way." And with that, Alex bent to kiss Isabel's hand, and turned to leave the room again. Isabel turned to stare at me, but I just shrugged. Alex had a point, and I had a 'nice but not too stiff' dress in my small suitcase that would sound just about the right note for this dinner party.

#

"Welcome, welcome dears, come on in. Ooh, Isabel, don't you look stylish in that outfit," Alinda said when she opened the door for the entire group from the Gorvan complex. "Hello, Liz - excuse me, what's this?" Liz had been carrying a covered grey dish, and was holding it out just slightly as if she expected someone to take it from her.

"I wanted to bring something along, as a way of saying thank you for inviting us over - among all the other kindnesses you've shown us," Liz said. "It's nothing special, just a pudding cake, more or less based on a recipe my parents had. We worked out the right settings on the food dispensers on the ship, and the one in our new apartment can run the same program. Maybe we could have just brought over the program and had your kitchen do the baking, but - it seemed like a nice gesture to actually carry the dish over."

"Yes, I think I agree," Alinda agreed, nodding and smiling, and I cringed slightly. I hadn't thought of anything like this until I'd seen Liz bring out the cake pan, and by that time it had really been too late for me to come up with anything to bring - and I knew Isabel was mentally kicking herself a bit too. Michael apparently didn't care as much about that, though there was something on his mind... "Since you mention it, though, I'd appreciate _all_ of your favourite recipe files - you can send me copies across the city network. You're all welcome over here - well, nearly any time, and I'd like to do anything I can to make you feel more at home."

"Okay, I don't mind sharing recipes," I muttered, a bit stunned at the obvious love that the alien lady had for us all. But then - well, she'd been living for decades in the hope that the children, step-daughter, and stepson-to-be that she had lost would be returned to her. Of course, Alinda had learned enough long ago to tell her that the Roswell hybrids weren't exactly the same Royal Four who she had lost, but if it gave her comfort to welcome us all as long-lost family, and she wasn't going to exert unreasonable demands on my friends, I certainly didn't mind.

Just at that point, Alinda's spacious drawing room was filled up by another group of people - Ava and Rath, Tess and Kyle. Kyle had a baby-sized bundle of blankets cradled on his shoulder, I realized with some surprise. (Well, presumably Joshua was in there and it wasn't just a bundle of blankets all the way through.) Joshua wasn't his son biologically, but if Max and Liz were serious about giving Tess partial custody, and Tess and Kyle finally got together, he'd be something like a step-father, or - well, whatever. Surprisingly, holding a baby seemed to look good on Kyle, and apparently I wasn't the only one to think so, because Liz told him that too, amidst all the other things that were said in that fifteen minute cocktail session. I didn't remember that much of the rest of it.

Soon we were gathered around a huge square table - just big enough for all of us after Christin showed up, because three people could sit on each side, and the shape seemed a bit odd to me, especially because nobody could stretch far enough to reach into the centre, but that didn't matter, because the only thing there was an elaborate crystal centrepiece in every colour of the rainbow. The foods provided were an incredible mix of Antarian cooking - most of it a bit spicy for my tastes, (even after being exposed to spicy-sweet stuff through Michael for years.) Some of it reminded me of old favourites from back on Earth - pineapple onion salami pizza, turkey dinner with mashed potatoes, even PB&J sandwiches. Others were at best vaguely familiar from our experiments with the food dispenser on board the ship on the way here. But nobody seemed to be at all disappointed in the food that was provided.

"So," Michael said with his typical lack of tact as soon as the first course was being served out, "did you tell Turik to offer me the job, Alinda?"

"Umm, no, I have to say I can't take credit for that idea," Alinda admitted, surprised but pleased. "What sort of work?"

"And why didn't you let me know about this earlier, like on the way over?" I demanded of my space-boy.

"Uhh -" Michael stared back at me, and then decided to focus on Alinda's question on the grounds that it was easier for him to answer. "Sounds like assistant stuff, working for one of his people here at Sanctuary. Gofer-ing, communications liaison, whatever else is required." He turned to me, suddenly eager to mention one little detail. "But no combat expected or anything like that - a low-risk position."

"Well, that's a bit reassuring, yeah," I had to admit to him. "Did you get a name, for this person you'd be working for?"

"Umm, let's see... Naleeword, I think that was his name."

"Her name," Alinda said with a small smile, and Michael jumped. "I hope that won't be the deciding factor against your accepting the job, Michael, if you're interested in it otherwise. She's a good woman and a capable administrator, and I think that you'd learn a good deal by working closely with her."

"Really?" I asked, smiling curiously. "Just what are her responsibilities?"

"Let's see - umm, I suppose you would call her the managing Coordinator of Sanctuary - supply requirements, general secrecy precautions, managing liaisons with the other Liaretian strongholds in the Antarian sphere of space - all this she is in charge of."

"And how does that relate to Turik's duties?" Rath asked, as he passed Ava the 'pasta pancakes.' (That was just how I thought of the item in question - I still can't remember the Antarian name.)

"Well, Turik, as Vorjal's seneschal, has to consider the needs of the overall organization more than just this little hiding place in the middle of Landorin city." Maria wasn't the only one who scoffed at the characterization of Sanctuary as 'small', though they didn't have much direct experience as to just what its extent was. "They don't spend all their time here, nor does Rayde, acting as my personal emissary. Naleeword's job is making sure that there's a safe place here for them to return to whenever things are a bit too exciting elsewhere."

"I think that might be good for you, Michael," Isabel told him. "And I agree with Alinda - you'd better not turn the job down just because you'd be working for a woman." There was a mostly agreeing laugh that ran around the table.

"Maybe I should be thinking of finding some work too," Kyle suggested. "Would I have to hit up our friends in high places, or would there be some way to just pound the pavement and find - well, somebody willing to hire an alien without much experience in the way that things work around here, or any references beyond said friends in high places... hmm."

"Well, let's think about that," Alinda said with another of her gentle smiles. "The economic situation here in Landorin is fairly promising at the moment, I believe - plenty of work, probably including some available 'entry level' positions in the trade centres, hospitality complexes, even in the extended spaceport facilities."

"That sounds good," Ava said, shooting a reassuring look at Kyle, who was probably one of her best friends.

"Yes, but - unfamiliarity with local custom might be an obstructive wall," Alinda admitted. "I know that you didn't express interest in an extended course of study at the college, Kyle - but I believe that the City government offers a free orientation course for travellers from far away. That might be a good idea for several of you."

"Yeah, I might be interested in that," Michael admitted.

"Would you be able to do that and start working for Naleeword at the same time?" I asked him. "Or would you defer starting the job?"

"I'm sure that Turik and Naleeword would understand and approve of the delay," Michael put in. "Especially if communications are an important part of the job - they wouldn't want me learning how to not offend people as I go."

"Maybe we should try that too," Max said to Liz and Isabel. "Could help us fit in better at the college. Most of the other students in a college-level course are probably going to take plenty of things for granted that we don't know yet."

"Yeah, well, we'll work it all out," Isabel told him, shooting Alex a tender look. "There's time."

"Not that much time before we start classes," Alex pointed out. "Unless we defer until later too." Isabel sighed softly.

"Speaking of not much time left," Liz said. "Ava, Rath - do you know when you're shipping out yet?"

"Yeah, late tomorrow afternoon, Landorin time," Rath told her evenly. "Rayde's going too. The freighter 'Constant moon' is on its way to Breoll - but the Breeolyn don't know that it'll be making a little stop along the way - rendezvousing with the main Liaretian fleet."

"Really?" Max said, interested by this. "Where are they hiding?"

"Deep space between Antar and Rahlicx," Ava told him. "Well away from the usual hyperspace recalculation points."

"So Rayde's leaving you?" I asked Alinda, before Max could ask more questions about how many ships the Liaretians had in their fleet. "Does she often spend much time away from here?"

"Yes, most of the time she's elsewhere," Alinda said regretfully. "Much as I'd love her company more often - I count her as a dear friend, but she's not a personal assistant or lady in waiting - not anymore. Her responsibility now is to travel abroad, be where I cannot go and allow me to exert what remains of my Royal authority as the Matriarch of Liaret where it counts."

"So just why is it that you can't leave yourself?" Isabel asked. "Is that just a precaution for your safety, or are you really..."

"You wouldn't ask if you'd known me for a bit longer, but it's only fair that you should know now," Alinda admitted, the edges of her mouth turning down. "My health isn't good, though with care I should last a few more years yet. I have better days and less good ones, and to a certain extent I can stack the deck for a particular day to be good by resting up for it and - and undergoing a procedure with a trained healer to boost my bodily systems, which I then have to recover from later."

"You - you did all that for today, knowing when we'd arrive?" Max guessed, and Alinda nodded. "But the healers can't cure whatever - whatever is plaguing you?"

"No," Alinda admitted. "For one thing, I am growing old, even by the standards of our people, and a healer cannot extend a natural lifetime more than a very short fraction, when the organs are beginning to decay and even cellular structures begin to break down. In addition, I am struggling with an ongoing infection of a microscopic life-form in my lungs - it is incurable by all known medical technology in this sector, resistant even to a healer's powers."

"Oh, I'm so sorry to - to hear that," Liz said, turning a piteous look on the matriarch.

"Don't be quite _that_ sorry, my dear," Alinda told her. "The contagion is under control, and the healer tells me it will certainly be my worn-out heart, not the bug in my lungs, that brings me down - though the two conditions inevitably complicate each other."

"Do you know how you got infected?" Rath asked. Then he winced, and I guessed that Ava had kicked him under the table or something like that.

"Not for certain," Alinda said, smiling slightly, "but if you think that Kivar's people had a hand in it, you might be right. It happened at a time when I was staying as a guest at the Ducal palace of Taliernar - the old Duke was refusing to take overt sides in what he saw as an Antarian civil war, so he assured my safety from overt attacks, but allowed Kivar and a retinue of his followers to visit the court as well. They may have released contaminated air into my chamber, or dosed some of my food in such a way that the taint proceeded down from my throat into - well, never mind. That's enough talk of depressing matters, isn't it?"

"I guess so," I said. "Okay, tell us something that's cheerful, Alinda."

"Oh - I was just about to ask you about your families back on Earth," Alinda said. "I - well, I guess that might be somewhat depressing, because you probably miss them, but..."

"Yeah, it's nice to think about them too," I agreed. "Okay, well, I'll go first I guess. My mom - it's just been me and my Mom for years, and Liz and our other friends, and maybe Kyle's dad, but... do you know what I mean? My Dad left when I was really little, but - Mom. She's really kinda crazy in a lot of ways, but - but I love her so much, and I know that she'd do anything she had to show her love to me and keep me safe. I - I really think that if she'd been given a chance to leave with us, she might have come along, but Christin sort of hinted that she and Mister V and Laurie should get out on that little alien plane, and she went along with that. But - umm, you probably want to hear something that will give you an idea what it's like to be around her, and all of a sudden, I'm mental blanking, and..."

"What I remember was how she lectured me after she found out that you and Michael were off on a road trip - the time you were taking Laurie home to find out what was going on with her," Liz said. "You weren't there, obviously, but - well, at that point we hadn't gotten up the nerve to tell her about alien stuff or whatever..."

"You never did get up the nerve, as such," Kyle put in. "She and cousin Sean and Maria walked into the middle of the Brody hostage crisis thing, and Tess tried to cover up her memories of that, but it didn't last so you had no choice but to start telling her everything."

"Well, yeah," Liz agreed. "But that was much later. She actually showed me Maria's long johns to demonstrate that she wasn't off camping - that's a kind of Earth clothing, Alinda. Long leggings that are worn for extra warmth in cold conditions, especially at night. And she took my phone, because she knew that Maria would be calling me to check in, and that that was the only way she'd be able to talk to Maria before she decided to come home herself."

"So, an intelligent, determined, and resourceful mother," Alinda said, nodding. "I'd like to think that we have something in common. Who's next?"

#

We stayed for hours at Alinda's - the first activity after dinner was playing a game on her computer system. Despite her talk of fading health, the old queen's mind was still keen, and she paired up with Lonnie in a paired strategy game, and their team ended up in a stalemate with Rath and Ava, so all four were declared winners. I was surprised that Alex and Isabel hadn't done better, but with so many teams, there was an effect at the beginning where anybody who was thought of as 'a threat' was immediately besieged by multiple attacks on different fronts. This pile-on syndrome wiped out Alex/Isabel and crippled Max/Liz before it eased off and people started to treat all of their potential enemies with the same level of concern, according to the strategic situation.

"Do you have home movies that we can watch or something, Alinda?" Ava asked, when she, Lonnie, and Rath were prompted to choose the next activity as a sort of prize for sharing in the victory. "Anything with happy memories of the older days, or - that sort of thing. Probably we shouldn't watch anything with video of the original Royal Four in it yet, though, if you have it - that might be too weird."

"Oh - um, I think that I can rustle up some actual home recordings, but since you've mentioned video, there are others that I should play now. There have been many greetings that have been coming here for you - Rayde and Turik didn't want me to relay them to the ship while you were still on your way, for various reasons, but you should go through them now. There are video messages from - let's see, Larek, and a cousin of Rath's, Kelim far-Selezir, and members of the Liaret family who aren't here at Sanctuary, and several others."

So we played through the videos, which were a somewhat overwhelming welcome out into the Antarian sector, and watched a video that was actually from Rayde's home, a small colony on a hollowed-out asteroid in the Antar star system, on the occasion where she had first met Alinda's entourage and joined her service. By this point, I was feeling really tired, and went over to tell Michael that I wanted to go back to my new apartment.

Michael grinned a bit too widely. "So go. You don't need my permission to go anywhere around here, now do you?"

"Yeah, but, well - umm. I wanted to go back with you, and - have some time all to ourselves." I flicked one glance across the room. "Isabel looks like she'll be happy to stay here for hours yet, so we could go back to our room, and..."

"Hey, if you want to get funky, I'm up for that. But I thought you said you were tired - unless tired is now code word for horny..."

"Oh, grow up Michael. Just because I want the two of us to have some privacy, doesn't mean that it's all about sex." I stormed toward the door, but turned back just as she got to it, possibly because I thought that it was asking a little too much out of a guy like Michael to jump to immediately what I had in mind, and the way he teased me was just the way he was, no point in getting upset about that. (And a lot of the time I did like it.) Somewhat to my surprise, Michael was just a few feet away - he had already been coming after me.

"I - I **am** tired, really," I whispered to him. "Having - making love isn't the uppermost thing on my mind, though you could possibly change my mind if you were creative about that." He chuckled in response. "But - but it's been weeks since I went to bed with your arms around me, since we agreed to give up the third double-bed room on the ship to Rath and Ava."

"Yes, I do know that," Michael said softly. He'd been sharing a bedroom with Kyle, and I'd been living with Lonnie, and it would probably be hard to say who had been most frustrated with that arrangement. "If that's what you wanted me for, why didn't you just say so?"

"I - I don't know," I admitted. "But I'm saying it now."

"You're right, that's enough. Come on." He raised his voice just enough to call 'Bye, everybody' as we slipped out the door, and nodded a polite acknowledgement to the guide and guardian who fell in just ahead of us and to the side in the hallway.

As we headed back to the Gorvan complex, Michael brought his arm up to the top of my back. I smiled, wondering if he'd wrap the limb around to my shoulder, but Michael's hand moved in a slightly different direction, first massaging my neck gently, stroking and fondling my skin, and then tweaking my earlobe in a teasing way. "What - uh, what are you doing?" I gasped, as I felt the surge of reaction that his caress brought.

"What does it feel like?" he whispered back to me. "Using the time that I have to change your mind. Is this creative enough?"

I shook my head, laughing tenderly, and using my own hand to cup and fondle my dear space-boy's backside. "I give you full marks for originality, but now we have to wait for a few minutes more before we're in the room."

"It'll feel better when we get there for all the heightened anticipation," Michael pointed out. He was absolutely right, but that didn't make it any easier for me to wait to really get my hands on his body. Patience has never really been my strong suit.


	2. Chapter 2

I woke up the next morning with Michael's arm draped around me, and felt completely content. I wouldn't have said anything for a long while myself, especially because I didn't want to disturb him if he was still sleeping, but soon his familiar voice came in a soft whisper from more or less behind my head. "So, what do we have to do today, my love?"

I considered the question for a moment. "Throw Rath and Ava some kind of a farewell party - and Rayde too, I guess, if she's leaving Vrelayan today with them."

"Hmm," Michael muttered pensively. Rath has never been one of Michael's favorite people in the galaxy - I'm not sure if it's because they're too similar or too different that they get on each other's nerves, or a little of both, in different ways. I actually wondered if he'd object to the idea, but his response wasn't that negative. "For a party, we'll need someplace to throw it - and food and drinks, and maybe other supplies and entertainment." He considered. "Alinda would probably offer to hostess again, if we asked her about it."

"Hmm... no, as nice as she's been, I don't want to presume on her time and strength," I said, reaching up to squeeze Michael's forearm reassuringly as I said it. "Remember what she told us yesterday about the state of her health. She went all-out to be energetic and at the top of her game yesterday, in honor of our arrival, so today she'll probably be doing well to sit up in bed - well, I don't know how bad it is really, but..."

"Yeah, I do get the point," Michael admitted.

"As far as the venue - why don't we plan to have it right here, in my apartment I mean, mine and Isabel's?" We'd heard someone quietly creep into Isabel's room late last night and head back out, so it was a pretty safe bet that Isabel had spent the night over at Alex's. "We might not have that much room for - well, for everybody that we know here in Sanctuary, not that that's too many, but if necessary people can spill over to your place, or Max and Liz's."

"Did you see Max and Liz's new digs yesterday?" Michael asked, and chuckled. "Small and cozy are really the words for it - bachelor style. They don't exactly have much space for entertaining."

"Hmm. Wonder if that means that they'll be spending a lot of time over at our place or yours," I wondered irrelevantly to the party discussion, "or if they'll be alone together in there every afternoon until it's time to head back to classes."

"Classes," Michael repeated. "That reminds me - we should make inquiries about that visitor orientation course thing that Alinda mentioned. Today."

"Yeah, I guess there'll be time for that too," I agreed. "Not to interfere with the party, because the three of them leaving this afternoon is more of a deadline." Michael went 'uh-huh.' "Okay, what else did you mention - food and drink? Yeah, I'm not sure that'll be much of a problem. The food dispenser in here seems to be nearly as good as the ones on board ship, and those were up to quite a few special occasions."

"Oh, right," Michael seemed to be surprised. "Sorry, I guess that when we landed, I somehow assumed that 'shipboard things' like that would get more back to normal - but maybe this is more normal for Landorin City than it is for Earth." He mulled it over a long time. "But Landorin seems to have a more typical Earth economy than a courier ship where everything is ultimately paid for by Larek. Is there a utilities fee for eating out of a food dispenser?"

"Hmm." Wasn't sure I liked to think about it. "Maybe we're getting charged for, I dunno, the power it takes to run it, like all of the other appliances, and in that particular case - the raw materials."

"Oh, yeah." Neither of us wanted to think about what the raw materials for a food synthesizer system might be like, especially for one particularly obvious candidate in a big city. "And I guess that brings up the question of if the Liaret family is arranging to pay our utilities bill, and other expenses."

"Don't look a gift grandmother in the mouth," I told him, remembering the discussion that I'd had with Isabel on the same topic yesterday. "Come on, there's plenty to do, and we don't even know what local time it is."

"One way to fix that," Michael said. "Genie, what's the local reading for Alex Standard Time?"

"Alex standard time?" I whispered. "And who's your friend Genie?"

"Good morning, Michael," a smooth and startlingly feminine voice announced out of nowhere. I was starting to feel jealous about this even before I understood it, (which can't be a good sign.) "The time is six twenty-nine AM."

"Something that Alex rigged up last night, a pretty straightforward conversion of the local Landorin clock into the hours and minutes that we're familiar with," Michael explained softly. "As well as recruiting us a friendly genie. She's a computer program, running in the building system - designed to work as a convenience. He's also taught her quite a bit of English already."

Ahh. I was starting to see the possible advantages here - just working with a voice-response computer in Antarian could be frustrating, even after the practice we'd had on the ship coming here. (Not all of those systems had voice command.) "Still, we need to remember that this clock runs faster than one back on Earth would," I realized.

"By a bit more than five percent," Michael agreed. "Still, it's very early, and we've got lots of time before Rath and Ava have to go."

"When does their ship leave today, Genie?" I asked, trying it. "By Alex Standard Time?"

"Warning," Genie scolded me. "I am programmed only..."

"Genie, this is Maria," Michael quickly told her. "She's going to be one of your primary - Mistresses. Answer all of her questions and requests as you would mine for now, grant her full access to build personal preferences, and monitor this apartment for her questions, even when I'm not around. Understand?"

"Understood, Michael. Do I understand correctly that this directive shall be retroactive?"

"Yes, answer the question she put a moment ago."

"The ship leaves Landorin spaceport at quarter after four this afternoon."

"And how early do they have to get there beforehand?" I continued. Just when I was wondering if I should have repeated Genie's name to help her understand that the question was a follow-up directed at her, I got a response, of a sort.

"I do not have that information available for immediate access, Maria. I can attempt to find out for you, but I anticipate that I might need to explain why you want to know."

"That's okay, Genie, don't bother. We'll find out soon enough."

There was a faint mm-hm sound, and nothing more - probably because I hadn't asked a question or said something that really required a response. "So, it's early, and we don't need to get started with party planning yet," Michael said, moving his hand down to stroke my bare thigh. (Passing over bare the-rest-of-me as he went.)

"If we get started, you're going to make me late for breakfast," I complained, turning to kiss his shoulder, and only just managing the contortion required. "But I guess that's a small price to pay."

"No question about that," he agreed, bringing his other hand into play.

#

When we finally came out, carefully dressed, (I had a new outfit to put on, of course, but Michael had to make do with what he'd worn to the party at Alinda's the night before,) I was surprised by the identity of the couple drinking hot liquids and munching on hand foods across the coffee table. I was pretty much expecting Alex and Isabel, though it didn't surprise that they weren't around yet. But seeing Max and Liz in our place was definitely a momentary shocker. Not that they weren't entirely welcome of course, but for one thing...

"Hey, how'd you get in, girl?" I asked Liz. "I didn't put your thumbprint on the door."

"Yes, and don't think I didn't notice the omission, which is pretty shoddy treatment from my maid of honor," Liz said with a laugh. "Luckily, Isabel was more considerate with her little brother."

"Ahh, okay, that makes sense," Michael agreed.

"Do you guys want to use the facilities before breakfast?" Max asked with a big smile.

"Umm, yeah, actually, I could really use a shower," Michael agreed. "There's something about hot water that wakes me up like using my own powers to clean up can't. Good thing that - wait, the bathroom here is pretty much Earth-style, right?"

"Umm - huh?" I asked, startled by the question. It took me a moment even to remember when I'd used 'the facilities'... right, in the middle of the night, once Michael was asleep. "I didn't notice anything too weird. Why, what are Antarian bathrooms like? Oh, you mentioned something after you first got back from Stellynfrus, but I can't really remember. The privacy chambers on the ship were - kinda weird, mostly from trying to fit as much function as possible in a small space, like bathroom cubicles on a plane or a train..."

"Never mind, I'll be okay," Michael said, kissing me. "And showering together should probably wait for another time, huh?"

"Umm - yeah," I agreed, giving him a little squeeze, and went over to join Liz on the sofa as Michael disappeared behind the bathroom door. "So, does that use of my title mean that the wedding planning is moving into high speed, Lady Parker?"

Max and Liz exchanged a look. "Not high speed, but things are moving," Liz admitted. "We were talking about it with Alinda - after nearly everybody else left last night." Okay, so they had been at the party later than we had, and were up and around at least as early, and I'd have been very surprised if they'd abstained from the enthusiastic lovemaking in between... so why did they both look more rested than I felt? Not fair. "And, as might be expected, a complication or two has come up. For one thing, there are - dignitaries in the Liaretian cause, who want to be invited to the wedding."

"I don't mind that part, so much," Max added, "but I'm worried about where it might lead." I nodded silent agreement to that, and looked around the table to see if they had any 'pizza cereal' mix over there. (That's stuff so good I can't even do justice to it in an explanation.)

I actually had to use the food dispenser to satisfy my particular craving, but because it's something that you can keep around for days without going bad, I found an empty container, maybe a quart or thereabouts, and filled it up. "Yeah, I guess that we're going to have to figure out our own balances around here - our Earth identities versus the people that some of the friendly aliens were expecting us to be - or at least those of you they were expecting at all. Do you remember that guy who sent one of the welcome videos that we watched last night, Michael's cousin? Kelim something."

"Yeah, of course," Max said. "He seemed nice, but I did notice that Michael seemed tense when he talked about finding a pretext to come out to Landorin and meet us."

"He wasn't the only one," I said. "I've been trying to work it out. Kelim lives back on Antar, in the same area where Rath grew up - so he's living under Kivar's rule?"

"I still don't follow all of the political stuff that Christin was trying to teach me on the ship," Max admitted. "I think that you're right - theoretically, at least. But as much power as Kivar's got, he still has plenty of enemies, and probably wouldn't harass an Antarian noble family too much unless they're obviously making trouble for him."

"But Kivar's agents might be watching Kelim," Liz said. "To see if he's secretly meeting with 'enemies of the Crown.' I hope that if he does come over, he'll be very careful about approaching Sanctuary."

"I'm sure that the people in charge of Sanctuary will have security protocols worked out," Max insisted. "They know that secrecy is critical, and I think there are ways to work it out to make sure that a hothead won't give too much away even if they forget all the procedures."

It was just around that point that Michael emerged from the bathroom and joined me with his own bowl of pizza mix. "So, has Maria been talking your ear off about the farewell party idea?" he asked Max and Liz.

"Umm, no, she hasn't mentioned it," Liz said, blinking slightly.

"We got started on a different topic," I pointed out. "So - Rath and Ava leaving this afternoon sometime. I wanted to have a 'do' for them beforehand - probably here and there and there."

"Where and where?" Max asked, his eyebrows coming down in puzzlement.

"Her place, his, and ours," Liz explained. "Our first floor party, probably not the last. I like the idea." Max was nodding.

"I did too," Michael said. "Wasn't sure how much preparation we'd be able to make, or what their schedule seemed like. And, on a somewhat random note - do you guys know if there's a bill for running the food dispenser?"

"Umm - yeah, actually, I did ask about some of the finances that Rayde set up for us, and those are included," Liz said. "It's really cheap, though - I don't think any of us should worry much about that particular item even if we're watching our expenses." Michael nodded, satisfied. "Maybe you should call over to Alinda's, Maria, and invite them over - Rath and Ava, Kyle - and Tess."

"Even her?" I joked. "Okay, sounds good. Nobody wants to try making it a surprise party?"

"God, no," Michael and Max chimed in chorus, and Liz just giggled. "What about Joshua?"

"Hmm... I want to get to know the baby better, but maybe it would be a better party if he's not here," Liz suggested tactfully. "If Alinda isn't up to babysitting, then I'm sure that she can find someone trustworthy on short notice."

"Alright," I said, and then sighed. "Do either of you know where the phone is, and how I place a call over to Alinda's?"

"Umm - not so much, no," Liz admitted, "But I'm sure that together, we can work it out."

#

We actually didn't have to figure it out ourselves, because the search had only just gotten underway when Isabel and Alex came in, Isabel remarking that she should have known that Max and Liz would be over here after she'd gone to visit her brother at his place and not found anybody home. They both looked well showered and dressed up in new clothes - Isabel looking like my image of an Antarian fashion model in an elaborately detailed purple wrap dress that seemed to have a tendency to float magnetically away from her skin and the tight bodysuit she was wearing in between, while Alex was much more Earth-casual in a plaid shirt and blue Dockers that I think I recognized. (Could he have had the clothes recreated to match something he'd left behind on Earth?)

Anyway, Alex, of course, had had time to figure out how the communicators worked here in Landorin city, so he pointed out the holo-phone for me and coached me through the fairly simple process of placing a call - like using a cordless phone back home, the interface has been made about as simple and quick as possible, once you're slightly familiar with it - one contact button to activate, and then punching in a code designation. Some Antarian servant lady answered for Alinda, I'm not sure exactly what her job description is, personal assistant or lady-in-waiting or whatever - and she opened up with the line that the lady of the house was not up to taking calls today. I guess that answers part of the question about how far down she sinks after making herself have a good day, like she did yesterday.

Anyway, I said that I was calling for Ava, (I'm still more comfortable taking with her than Rath,) and waited as she was found, and probably in bed, though whether she and Rath were sleeping, to be honest, I'm not really sure. "Oh, hey, that's great of you," she said after I'd explained the goodbye party idea. "We do have to be at the spaceport well before takeoff, but I think that there'll be enough time - how about if we come by in two hours, Earth time? Will that be enough time to get things ready?"

"Uhh - I'm sure that we'll work it out," I told her. "I can't wait. Umm - Kyle and Tess are welcome to come along, but - well, this is delicate, but..."

"Tess had better find a babysitter for little Joshua?" Ava said knowingly.

"Umm, yeah actually. It was Liz's idea..."

"And a good one," Ava agreed. "Tess loves her baby, I know, but I think that she'll appreciate having just a short break without always paying attention to him. I think that Alinda has somebody here who's babysat before. It'll be all good. Is Lonnie invited to this shindig?"

"Umm - I have to admit that I haven't thought about her," I admitted. "What do you think; would you want her to have the opportunity to give you a sendoff?"

"Sure, why not? I can call her if you like, too."

"Umm, no, don't worry about it. Somebody can go down and deliver the invite in person from here," I said. "That seems better. See you in two hours."

"Great, I'll bring the others with me," Ava said. "Oh, and if it's not too much trouble, do you think that you could rustle up some hybrid-safe liquor?"

That suggestion surprised me, though I probably should have been expecting it. On the trip over, we'd been introduced to various Antarian beverages that more or less fit the same role that alcoholic drinks did for Earthlings - mild intoxicants often used for social and recreational purposes. (Ethyl alcohol, of course, is much too dangerous a substance for an Antarian, or hybrid, for it to be used for those purposes.) Christin had told us that some of them weren't so good for human/Antarian hybrids as pure Antarians, though I wasn't exactly sure how she knew so much. One other thing was that the food dispensers on the ship couldn't make such beverages as a safety precaution - some could be synthesized with the medical bay system, while others had been kept in storage since the ship set out from Rahlicx.

Somehow I very much thought that such safety precautions would also be in force for the food dispensers in our apartments. So - were any of us up for a beer run, Antarian style? Would there be legal or practical issues in buying controlled substances, aside from the obvious fact that we had no cash on hand? Somehow, I found that I was eager to take up the challenge, for Ava's sake and to make this party idea of mine a hit. "I'll do what I can," I promised her.

"Cool, thanks bunches. Bye now? I need to pack, and figure out what to wear for today."

"Sure, yeah," I agreed, waved a bit, and hit the power button to make the holo display go dark again. When I looked around, I saw that Alex was still watching me from off to the side.

"So, an Antarian liquor store?" he asked. Guess that answered the question of if he'd been listening in.

"Yeah - are you up for the trip?" I asked.

"Try and stop me."

#

Michael and Isabel were both interested in going on the shopping trip too. Max and Liz weren't, and asked if somebody else could stay behind and help them with making decorations and food. ('To keep you on the job and not wrapped up in each other,' Alex put in at that point.) Eventually Michael agreed to stay behind - a bit nettled at Isabel's suggestions that he wouldn't have remembered what Christin had said about what beverages were safe for them anyway.

So as the three of us were getting ready to go, Isabel brought up one possible problem that I hadn't thought of. "How do we find our native guide and let him (or her) know that we need help, anyway?"

"Oh," I muttered, and thought about it. "I guess I assumed that he'd be loitering in the corridor between our apartments, where we met up to go over to Alinda's last night - but I guess we do have neighbors, who might find that a bit disconcerting - and uncomfortable for the Sanctuary shadow too, if it comes to that. You didn't see anybody when you were out going from place to place? I actually haven't stepped out this morning."

"Only one guy leaving 379 and heading for the stairs," Isabel reported. "Oh, are you sure that you're ready to head out like that?"

I looked down at my t-shirt, which was one that Mom gave me a bit over a year ago and had shaded patterns going from white through pink to rose and bright red, and the denim shorts and sandals that I'd paired them with. "Yeah, sure. Why, are you embarrassed to be seen with me when I'm like this?"

"No need to be touchy," Isabel said. "You look great - not that Antarian, but I'm not sure we're going to entirely blend in no matter what we do, so maybe that doesn't matter. I just thought I was being considerate to ask, since if you hadn't been out already today, maybe you hadn't finished taking care of other things. That's just what I meant."

"Um, no, I'm okay," I insisted. I'd asked Michael to clean me up a bit before we went out and I started talking with Max and Liz, since I don't insist on showering the old-fashioned way like him. "Let's go, party clock is ticking."

"Go where, exactly?" Alex said. "We haven't sorted that out yet."

"Maybe just explore the area," Isabel said. "Turik said that he'd be leaving us a guide for the first few days at least. We shouldn't have to go far to find him or her."

As it turned out, after only a little looking around, the guide found us, hurrying down the corridor. "Hello, hello," he said in clear, easy-to-understand Antarian. "I came as soon as I could when I realized that you were looking for something, and that something might be me. Pider Gips, at your service."

"You realized that we were looking for something?" I repeated. Isabel shot me a look. "Oh, hello Pider - I'm Maria."

"Yes, I do know all your names, but thank you for the courtesy," he said. Pider seemed to be about our age, and actually kind of cute if your taste runs to blue-purplish skin and pale pink hair and eyes. (I caught myself looking for the same shade of pink on my shirt, and found it too.) "To further explain how I knew that - there's a security feed covering this corridor - every corridor in the building, actually, and I was waiting in the security guard's office and keeping an eye out on this feed."

"That sounds reasonably smart," Alex told him.

"Thanks - but it wasn't an original idea of mine. And if you were really out here looking for your guide, I guess that nobody told you about this." He brought out a sort of a fat, stubby, short want with controls and indicator lights on the flattest side. "Whoever's on duty for you will be carrying this, and you can initiate a voice call or page it from the communicator in your room. I can send the call number to your PDU." Somehow he had no trouble interpreting the blank looks on our faces. "You've never heard of a PDU? Personal data unit?"

"Umm, no, but it sounds like a good thing to get a few of," Alex said with a smile. "A little modern convenience of the Antarian sector that we're not used to?"

"I suppose so."

"Well, you can just tell me the code I think, if you know it," Alex said. "I have a good memory for that kind of thing?"

"Really?" Alex nodded, and Pider pushed a few buttons to bring it up, and recited a long string of Antarian numerals and letters. "You sure that you've got it?" he said once he was done.

Alex repeated it, and I couldn't have said if he got it right, but he didn't hesitate, and Pider seemed to be impressed as he checked Alex's version against his display. "Test me once again before we part company, okay?"

"Surely. So - what did you want from me this morning?"

"Your assistance with a shopping trip," Isabel explained. "Not specifically for PDUs, since we hadn't heard about them until just now. We're having a goodbye party for some friends, and they asked for Antarian liquor - Kelac, Raissonyu, that kind of stuff." She was probably mentioning the only such beverages that she remembered the names of, out of what the steward on the ship had served us for special occasions."

"Hmm... alright, that should be feasible," Pider said after a moment. "I do have some currency and a computerized credit tile that was to be used for procuring your requests. Not sure if Turik expected that you'd want me to come along with you, instead of just sending me out as a gofer to get what you want."

"If he didn't, then he should have," I said, wading into the conversation myself. "We won't ever get comfortable with Sanctuary if we don't get out and about in it ourselves, and we probably won't want to dispense with the native guide until we're comfortable."

"Very wisely put," he agreed. "The Kajkajnos commerce arcade is closest, and I'm sure that they'd have a potables vendor there, though I'm not sure if I've ever been to it myself. You've probably already seen the arcade from the balcony, on your way to Lady Alinda's and back last night."

"Yeah, I remember, it wasn't very busy on the way there and dark and empty on the way back," I said, wondering for a moment how he knew what we'd been up to last night. Then I realized that he'd probably been briefed by our other guide at shift change. (Had there been a third local on duty while we were sleeping, just in case somebody needed something desperately in the middle of the night?)

"It'll be much busier right now - this is a prime shopping hour, when the laborers and office workers pick up things before starting their work shifts."

"Interesting," Alex said, filing this away as another cultural difference. I was interested too - why was Landorin backwards from most places on Earth that I knew about, where shopping was more of an afternoon, after work thing?

"So," Isabel continued as we headed down the part of the route that all of us already knew. "What does 'cash' look like on Landorin? Is it coins made out of metal, or printed paper bills, or what?" I think some of this was straining her Antarian vocabulary - I was having a bit of trouble keeping up, but I did understand what she meant.

"Oh, umm - well, take a look." He pulled out a sort of a - well, a manly purse, not to be too mean about it. (Probably there aren't the same kind of preconceptions about guys carrying little bags like that here - I hope.) The contents of the billfold and change purse sections were both largely familiar in format and slightly different - the 'bills' seemed to be a bit thinner, longer, and skinnier than American Greenbacks, and when I reached out to finger them, the top one felt a bit slick and slippery, but it stuck to the others in the sheaf. The coins were about the size I'd expect, flat and thin, but instead of being perfect circles each denomination was a different geometric shape, with the corners mostly rounded off so they wouldn't be pokey - triangles and squares and pentagons and so on.

"A lot of planets have gone entirely cashless around here, but Vrelayan seems to cling to the notion of old-fashioned coins and bills," Pider told us. "I've heard that you can still use coins, at least, back on Antar itself."

"Not that we're likely to get the chance to try soon," I said, and that killed the conversation for a while until we reached the arcade floor itself. Ah, well.

I soon found myself in the awkward position of trying to keep the entire shopping trip 'on-message' and going home early with the liquor (and maybe a few PDUs,) and helping the others make other party preparations, while Alex and Isabel were too easily wiled by other items that were up for sale, and Pider more than eagerly explained all he knew about anything that they were interested in. I won't go through the entire saga bit by bit, but we'd spent more than an hour by the time I cajoled Isabel back to the stairs, sure that Alex would follow after her, promising both of them that we could all come back tomorrow. It helped my case that all four of us were carrying at least one bag or package in each hand by this point.

"Alright, so how does this work?" Alex said on the way up the stairs, managing to pull a PDU (which looked a bit like a black walnut) out of his largest bag. Typical, for him, eager to play with a new electronic toy.

"Just wait until we're up on the balcony, and I'll show you," Pider promised. Soon enough we were standing there, above the still-bustling market arcade, and Pider brought out his mobile communicator and pointed it at the PDU between Alex's fingers. The walnut beeped once at him in a high tone.

"Is that it?" Isabel asked, blinking. Pider nodded. "Okay, so how do we use it to get your code when we need to call you - or our next gofer after you're off shift?"

"Just set it on the flat, slightly recessed surface on top of your communicator console," Pider explained. "It'll auto-detect the PDU and give you a list of all the codes that it's collected, let you assign your own reference names to each one, and so on." Alex shrugged agreeably and stuck the PDU in his pants pockets, (which looked a lot like Earth jeans but were somehow slightly different in style.)

#

"What took you guys so long?" Michael asked with an irritation I hoped didn't run too deep, as we came in. I hugged him, conscious of the fact that neither Isabel nor I had been the ones working to decorate our apartment for the party, or synthesizing food in our kitchen. Oh well. The liquor trip had been necessary too.

"All the shiny pretty things of the commerce arcade," I answered. "We'll have to all go back tomorrow morning. But we've got Kelac, Raissonyu, and Breeolyn sonti, which the liquor-man assured us was safe for all Antarian-human hybrids."

"Did he think it was weird that you were asking?" Liz said, sounding concerned.

"Not really, as far as I or the guide could tell," Isabel answered. "Maria also picked up a little something special for you and the other humans." She cocked her head. "Are you and Kyle still counted as human in the metabolism column? I know that your DNA is slightly altered..."

"And Liz's soul is alien," Alex chimed in helpfully.

"Thanks so much," Liz told him. "I had about half a mug of Klenthorr ale at that space station we stopped at, a week and a half ago. Max made me stop when he found out that it had alcohol in it, but I didn't have any reaction other than a pale shadow of a buzz. And the taste of Raissonyu makes me feel violently ill, just as it does Alex and Maria. I guess whatever genes Max altered when he healed me don't affect the liquor reactions."

"Then maybe it's a good idea that we got this," Alex said, producing a bottle from Isabel's bag. "Lamb's light brown rum. I wish I knew who robbed who to get it here - or maybe I'm better off not knowing."

"Hmm, yeah, abducting humans is one thing, but stealing booze from the Earth?" Michael said. "Considering that Antarians can't drink it, what's the point?"

"Status symbol, something to put in a cabinet just because it's rare and from faraway, not because you're ever going to use it," Max suggested. "Or a death-wish dare kind of a thing, or a dangerous 'mickey' to slip somebody that you don't like."

"Well, nobody but us Earthlings is going to touch it today," Liz insisted. "Death wish dares not allowed, or mickeys. Thanks, guys."

"Be careful, though, Parker," Kyle said from near the door. "There's one case when not even human girls are supposed to drink of the alcohol."

"What are you doing here, 'Valenti'?" Isabel mimicked.

"Thought I could come and help out," he explained. "The guests of honor are still half an hour away from being ready, and Tess will be coming with them."

"Alright, fine," Liz said, crossing over to Alex and snatching the bottle. "Kyle, for the record, not that it's any of your business, I'm definitely _not_ pregnant."

"Okay, okay, I just wondered," he said. "Actually, more than just a wonder - I kind of got the weirdest feeling that somebody from our extended 'gang' will be in the family way within - the next two months or so. I couldn't tell you why I'm sure, or if it might be more than one. Just wanted to bring up the subject, I suppose, see what kind of reactions I provoked."

"Well, you provoked me, all right - are you happy?" Liz snapped, and sat down on the sofa, in the spot nearest to the video screen where you can't really get a good look at it.

"Okay, umm - do you think that this is a new semi-alien power of yours, this sort of intuition, or..." Michael stopped at that point, because even while he was talking we'd all heard a sort of a ragged gasp coming from the vicinity of the sofa. The sort of a gasp that isn't too far from being a sob.

I whirled and hurried over towards Liz - and then hesitated as I was rounding the coffee table and met Max's glance, because as the fiancee he was sort of entitled to be alone with Liz in a distraught moment like this if he wanted to be. But Max nodded at me - and started to quietly but efficiently hustle everyone else out of the apartment, even Isabel, who didn't protest beyond a somewhat indignant glance.

"What is it, honey?" I said, reaching out to take Liz's hand in mine, but she flinched it away. "Umm...trying to think here, are you just feeling homesick on a delayed-reaction, or..."

Liz looked up at that, and managed to seem a bit withering even as the tears were still flowing, which is the more remarkable since Liz is just about the last person I'd pick for a withering glare out of everybody I know. (Just goes to show something-or-other.) Max came over, cleared his throat, and mumbled, "There's something else."

"Okay, so, umm - are you going to make me guess? Something like - oh, was Kyle actually hitting a bit too close to the mark with talk about pregnancy?"

"We - we agreed to try to get pregnant," Max said softly, kneeling down and reaching for her hand. Him, she let take it. "No - no luck so far, and I guess that might be part of what's upsetting you so much, right honey?"

Liz nodded, not speaking to him. "Okay, umm - help me out here, if it's not too much trouble. Just how long have you actually been trying to have a baby?"

Max waited for a few seconds, as if hoping that Liz would answer me, and then coughed again. "Formally - only four and a half days or so."

"Okay, so? That's not so much time. Do you even know...?" And then part of the realization hit me. "Right, of course, I hadn't thought of that part. You'd know all about - about Liz's ovulation cycle and all, as soon as you touched her and concentrated, right?"

"It's not quite that easy, but yes - we timed our - activities with that factor in mind," Max agreed. "Even though the fact that we were due to land at Landorin in the middle of it was a bit of a complication."

"So, I guess that now the, the time that Liz could get pregnant this month has already passed by, and you're sure that she hasn't?" I asked. Both of them nodded solemnly.

"I - I do know that I'm overreacting, but I can't help the way that I feel," Liz mumbled. "As close as Max is tuned into the workings of my body, if we weren't able to conceive this time around, maybe there's something seriously wrong that just trying-" She let out a gasping sob and reached with her free hand to wipe away tears. I dug into a pocket, but didn't find a hankerchief. "...That just trying won't fix, I mean. Max is a genetically prepared hybrid, and I'm a human girl who's already been infused with some of his DNA when he brought me back to life. There are plenty of reasons why we might have problems conceiving a child, not the least is that the original plan - in terms of the bio-science side of things at least, was for his body to be paired with Tess'."

"But still your soul," I insisted, and Liz shook her head, discarding that detail.

"I, I didn't realize that you felt this way," Max told her softly. "It may not be much comfort to you now, but one thing that does seem like a good idea to me is that all of us - well, most of us at least - should go in for a medical and genetic checkup when it can be arranged. I have some questions to ask about the way that we hybrids were fashioned in the first place, and since the ones who did the original hybridization seem to be unavailable, we're going to have to get people who can look at the end result and work back from there."

That managed to distract Liz enough to stop her from crying. "What kind of questions?"

"Dry high school biology stuff - about chromosomes and gene pairs and such, but ever since - hearing about Tess and Joshua, I've been wondering, at least. You know about how chromosomes combine from the parents in Earth species, right? Each individual has two copies of the same gene space, which might be the same or might be different, on distinct chromosomes."

"Yes, of course," Liz snapped. "I was planning to go to Harvard in biochemistry, remember? Give me credit for knowing the basics well."

"Okay, so the same process works for ordinary hybrids, right?" Max continued. "Mules and so on."

"More or less," Liz agreed. "There can be some problems - I don't think that horses and donkeys even have the same number of chromosomes, though I'm not sure I ever really learned the details of how that works for Mules. I think that has something to do with the reason why mules are sterile, though." She jumped as she realized what she'd said.

"Yeah," Max agreed. "Don't worry - Tess and I have sort of demonstrated that we're not infertile, and I think that if we were genetically like typical hybrids, it would be harder to develop a healthy child between ourselves than with a 'purebred' of either species. If we were first generation hybrids I mean, then we'd have one human gene balancing with one Antarian in each spot, and whichever is dominant would be expressed in us. But Joshua would be a second-generation hybrid - he'd have a lot of spots in his genetic code where recessive human traits and recessive Antarian traits would show up. He'd be both more human and more alien than we are in different ways, and it seems more likely that the two different physiologies in those genes would conflict with each other."

"Okay, but Joshua seems healthy so far, except for the bit about being unable to grow in Tess when she was breathing Earth air, so what does that mean?" Liz carried on. (By this point, I was just listening and trying to understand as the two of them talked about the biology.) "If your DNA code and Tess' were designed to be compatible, then your genes could have been designed to minimize the chances of problems - except that they wouldn't have been able to tell what combination you'd get when you first conceived." After a moment's thought, the answer occurred to her. "So they'd have set up your DNA so that it wasn't like an F1 hybrid, but more similar to an F2 or even an F3 and further - lots of places where you have two copies of the same human gene or the same alien one - the same basic template for all eight of you, with only a few simple variants to give you individual characteristics. More like a separate species, one that's derived from elements of humanity and - and Antarity, I guess we'll call it."

"Yeah, that's what I've been wondering about, more or less," Max admitted. "Not sure I understand enough about the Antarian legal or Essentological issues to see how they might have weighed on the original plan architects - if they had to keep a certain amount of Zan's DNA to make me qualify as his heir, or to make sure that I could host the recovered part of his soul. But they're all good questions to ask." He took a deep breath. "As far as you, we can check, but I'm not sure that the DNA changes I made when I healed you would have any impact on our kids - I guess I hope that they don't. The cells in our - gonads, are different in certain ways from every other cells in the body, and designed to protect their DNA better. Healing you, saving your life, that cause might have triggered changes in nearly every other part of you, but I don't see why it would have affected - your ovaries." He seemed a little embarrassed using the proper word.

"Well, I guess we'll see," she said. "Do you feel comfortable making the arrangements for an exam?" Max nodded. "Okay, then - I'll go into your bathroom and clean up a little, Maria, and you go and call the rest of the gang in. We've wasted enough time, eh?"

"Sure," I said. Looking out of the door, once again I couldn't find who I was looking for waiting out in the corridor. It turned out that they were all at Michael and Alex's place, getting the food dispenser there to produce an impressive variety of pizzas.


End file.
